Riad Sattouf

(b. 5 May 1978, France)

L'Arabe du Futur

Riad Sattouf, son of a Syrian father and Breton mother, was born in Paris. He spent most of his childhood the Middle East, first in Algeria, then in Libya and Syria. He was able to pick up reading French comics through his grandmother. He developed a desire to become a comic artist early on, and produced several short stories that remained unpublished. By now back in France, he studied Applied Arts, followed by a studies in animation at the École des Gobelins.

In 1997, Sattouf's work was noted by Olivier Vatine, who introduced him to publisher Guy Delcourt. Sattouf made his first professional comics work in collaboration with writer Corbeyran, resulting in the series 'Petit Verglas' between 2000 and 2002. During the same period, Sattouf made cover illustrations for novels and participated in some animation projects.

La Vie Secrète des Jeunes

Sattouf's first solo series, 'Les Pauvres Aventures de Jérémie', was published in Dargaud's Poisson Pilote collection between 2003 and 2005. He also had some booklets published by Bréal Jeunesse ('Manuel de Purceau', 'Ma Circoncision') and made the children's series 'Pipit Farlouse' for Éditions Milan in 2005-06. He additionally made one shots like 'No Sex in New York' for Dargaud's Poisson Pilote in 2004, and 'Retour au Collège' for Hachette in 2005, and participated in collective projects like 'Rire contre le racisme' (Éditions Jungle) and 'Vive la politique' (Dargaud) in 2006.

Sattouf's comic 'Pascal Brutal' appears in Fluide Glacial since 2006. His chronicles of the secret lives of youths for Charlie Hebdo have been collected in the series 'La Vie Secrète des Jeunes' by L'Association since 2007. He wrote the script for the 2009 feature film 'Les Beaux Gosses'. In 2014 Allary Éditions published 'L'Arabe du Futur', Sattouf's acclaimed graphic novel about his childhood in the Libyan capital Tripoli.